1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an interactive food and/or drink ordering system and method; customers directly input their orders into an electronic point of sale system. The system eliminates the need for a waiter to take an order. The invention can be used in restaurants and other locations where food and/or drinks are served.
2. Technical Background
There is considerable pressure on restaurants to increase the speed and reliability with which orders are taken and also the speed at which a bill (“check” in US English) is presented to a customer after requesting. One approach to addressing this problem is to provide a large touch screen monitor plus PC embedded into each table top. The monitors are connected to the menu point of sale system that provides orders to the kitchen. But the tables are very costly and the combined screens/tables can be damaged if the table is knocked. The glass (or acrylic) tops of these tables also have to be thick, making the tables very heavy and hence difficult to move—a problem in many restaurant environments, especially for cleaning.
Another problem with touch screen displays with very thick glass is that the actual display surface can be several mm away from the top surface—introducing a barrier and related parallax effects, which can make the process of using them seem unnatural. A further problem is that providing power and data cabling to tables in a restaurant can be very costly.
3. Discussion of Related Art
A prior art system is described in patent application WO 2008/071979 (the contents of which are incorporated by reference). WO 2008/071979 describes an interactive food and/or drink ordering system, in which a computer controlled projector is mounted above a surface such that a menu of food and/or drink selection options is projected onto some or all of the surface. The selection options are selectable by a user operating an interface device connected to the computer, such as a wireless track pad.
In prior art FIG. 1, two projected menu zones are shown as the circles with dashed lines; each person has their own menu zone, with text and images generated by a single overhead projector facing them appropriately. Each person has their own Bluetooth wireless trackpad, each shown as the small circle with a solid line. In FIG. 1, the two projected menu zones are on a table surface. The table has next to it a first seat and a second seat, for use by respective first and second persons.
The approach in prior art FIG. 1 makes menu selection and menu interaction a self-centered process—i.e. it is not an experience that is shared by the various diners sitting at the table. Also, the location of the projected menu zone may be fixed and defined, and hence relatively inflexible.